Dr. Martin answers questions sent in by our listeners.
Some of today’s topics include:
- Decrease in bone density
- Dairy & inflammation
- Frequent stretching of legs
- Unexplained allergies
- General anesthetic killing brain cells
- Optimal daily levels of protein
- Fasting insulin vs. glucose tests
- Blood clots
- Reversing of gum loss
- Causes of low blood pressure
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
Announcer: You're listening to The Doctor Is In Podcast, brought to you by MartinClinic.com. During the episode, the doctors share a lot of information. As awesome as the info may be, it is not intended to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent any disease. It's strictly for informational purposes.
Dr. Martin: Well, good morning everyone. How is you? Hope you're having a great start to your day. Okay, let's get to our questions. Rita. "My recent bone mineral density showed a significant decrease in bone density levels at the femoral head." Yeah, that's not good, "from five years ago. Any recommendations?" Well, listen, Rita, there's a few for sure. Okay, now remember, okay, you want calcium in bones, not in your bloodstream. So I don't know, Rita, what your vitamin D levels are. Try and find out what your serum vitamin D levels are, because vitamin D is very important in making bone. Okay? Calcium is important. Making bone, that's why we talked about this yesterday a little bit. Vitamin K2, eggs, meat, and cheese. Vitamin K2 is only found in the animal kingdom. It's not found in the plant kingdom. Vitamin K1 is found in plants. Vitamin K2 is found in the animal kingdom.
That's why it's important. Like when someone tells you I'm a vegetarian or a vegan, it's not healthy. How could it be healthy if you don't have vitamin K2 in your diet? Okay? Because vitamin K2 is important for your bones. Why? Because it takes calcium that you eat. Okay? I'm not big on calcium supplements. I've never given a calcium supplement per se, okay? Because I'm, I'm always telling people to eat their calcium with their vitamin K2. And when you take vitamin D, it should have K2 in it. Vitamin D is not only for bones, we all know that it is tremendous. It's good for your immune system, yada, yada, yada. You're a human solar panel, but calcium in bones, eat eggs, meat and cheese. That's where vitamin K2 is. That's, you got lots of calcium in eggs, meat and cheese. Okay? The other thing is muscle.
I think we actually wrote a newsletter about this very recently, Rita. Strong muscles, strong bones, sarcopenia, which is muscle wasting, is absolutely a part of osteoporosis. The more... I used to explain it to my patients like this, your bones are anchors and your muscles attach into there and they anchor in. And the more you make that muscle work, the stronger the muscle, the bone has to latch onto that. The bone itself, the osteoblast inside the bone actually start to build muscle, build bone. This is why at the Martin Clinic, we talk about this all the time. We talk about the importance of being strong. Ladies, I know you like walking. I like walking. Okay. I do, I always say move, exercise. Any exercise is good for you. But the best exercise by far in terms of your metabolic health and your bone health is muscle strengthening exercise. Resistant exercises, okay? Talk about that all the time.
Ideally, get strong, build muscle, okay? And you don't have to go to a gym to do it. You could, but I'm saying you can get weights at home or bands at home. I have bands right here. I strengthen myself and ladies, it's every bit as important for you because women have got this idea that bone is calcium. Calcium today, at least it was about five years ago. I, I haven't checked it recently. The number one selling supplement five years ago, okay? Like I said, I haven't seen it since. I should look it up again. The number one selling supplement in North America is calcium. And it, it gives me a headache, okay? It gives me a headache because they're looking for love in all the wrong places. You don't need calcium. That supplement of calciums never going to get to your bones. Eat your calcium with vitamin K2 the way nature intended. God gave you cheese to eat it. <laugh>
Somebody was asking, I saw it on the Facebook group, you know, I'll answer it right now. "Dr. Martin, I hear that dairy causes inflammation." Well, yes and no <laugh>, okay? Because if you have leaky gut and you are in the small intestine, and the microvilli, your, uh, microvilli when they're healthy in your small intestine, they produce lactase is an enzyme. You need to break down lactose. Guys, that's why I'm not so big on, like, I'm not getting rid of dairy. Dairy's good for you, but grocery store milk. I'm sorry, that's not really milk, okay? It's white Pepsi, but, and there's a lot of lactose in there. The milk sugar, but not in cheese, not in butter. So don't ditch dairy, switch dairy, okay, Rita? Now you wanna take a bone building supplement. I like bone broth. I do. Bone building, amino acids and L-glutamine, which it actually helps to fix up your leaky gut. Okay? And there's some studies out, Rita. I'll try and see if I can find them somewhere where I kept them. There's studies on certain probiotics being very good for bone. And, and the reason again, is that absorption inside, you see, uh, probiotics are, are on your side and they really help with mineral absorption.
Okay... Candace, "I need to stretch my legs so much ever since I did the Reset." Is it because Candace, you're getting cramps or like, I I, I'm, I'm asking more because if you need to stretch your legs out when you first get up and not, that's usually like your, your body's a little bit dehydrated and listen when you're changing fuels, okay? It's a big change for a person. People don't realize, you know, how many times a day I hear, I don't eat that many carbs. And I say, yes, you do. You eat a lot of carbs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you do. It's not till they do the reset, till they realize, holy moly, I was eating lots of carbs and I was a carboholic. And you know, some of it was, you know, like, oh, doc, it was good. You know, a lot of it was fruits and vegetables. Okay? But, you know, bread and, and noodles and pasta and, and cereals and, and rice and milk. You know, a lot of people don't realize that. They don't look at their macros and, and, and figured that out, you know? And so it's very, very, very important.
So, listen, I, like I said, Candace, you're stretching out your legs. Your body's changing. If it's dehydration, make sure, and, and you know me with dehydration. Dehydration is water. Yes, primarily. But salt water, if someone calls you salty, okay? Take it as a compliment. You need salt and water, okay? And especially when you're changing fuels like that, okay? Cause your body at one time was leeching out minerals. Your body's switching, okay? To another fuel. And sometimes I can give you some weird type of symptoms.
Lise, "I develop random allergies, itchy eyes, stuffy, itchy roof of the mouth. What causes this?" Well, unexplained allergy that can happen. Allergies can come on just like that, okay? And you were never allergic to something before. And now your body... Look, it's always, always, always, Lise, always, it's starting in your gut, okay? Your gut, like that microbiome in there, what's happening in there? You know, you got trillions of bacteria in there, okay? And they're communicating with each other. They help make up that epithelial layer, that one cell layer thick. I mean, it's so invisible, you can't even see it. Even with a microscope, you have a hard time seeing it. That barrier that made up between your gut and your blood. That I guarantee you, Lise got compromised.
Why? Well, it could be a number of things, okay? And why do people find when they get on the reset that their allergies, a lot of them get better because you're not feeding the bears. Like stuff gets into your bloodstream, okay? Stuff gets into your bloodstream, don't belong in there. You know what belongs in your bloodstream? Water and nutrients. Okay? Water and nutrients. The garbage doesn't belong in your blood. But when you have unexplained allergy, just like that, it could be mold that never bothered you before is bothering you now. It could be the environment, it could be a lot of things, but one thing for sure is you're overreacting. That is what we call, really, it's a minor autoimmune disorder. It is. Cause your body is flagging stuff, making antigens and antibodies. The antigen is what's bothering you. The antibody is what your body responds to it. But if you're making antibodies, so check your diet, check your environment, check your gut. I used to do all of that in my, in my office to try and figure out what was causing allergies to come outta nowhere.
Anez is saying, "Does general anesthetic kill brain cells?" Yep. Yep. And it does kill your microbiome. Ah, it disrupts it, does it kill it like an antibiotic? Meh, but it's never a bad idea if you're going under anesthetic to really double up your probiotics ness. Okay? And remember, your brain has an enormous ability to regenerate. Protect your brain. I'm very, very, very big on probiotics, gut brain connection. I'm very big on high DHA, I talk about it all the time because it's so good for you. It's so good for your brain. You wanna regenerate your brain. Your brain is made up of fat. Someone calls you fat head take it as a compliment. Hey, fat head, thank you. <laugh> No, but seriously, that's what happens to people when they get Alzheimer's or dementia or their brain shrinks. Sugar shrinks the brain. So you want to replace that. Your brain 60% of it is made up of that DHA fat. That's why I'm so big on. And the highest source of DHA is fish, steak. Fish, steak. Okay?
Okay... Phyllis, "In the email, Dr. Martin says 54 grams of protein a day is not enough. What is the optimal range? What is your formula?" Well, my formula really is don't count, okay? Because look, when I used to deal with athletes and professional athletes and was consulting with them, I really got them to measure out protein cuz I wanted them at 300, 400 grams of protein a day. Look, don't count. Okay? Can I get you Phyllis not to count? Okay, I'm not that interested in numbers. I wrote that there in an email. I know I did, but I wanted to show the low end because people, you wouldn't believe Phyllis, how little protein people consume. They don't realize that because they don't understand what they're eating. Especially when they're carboholics. And when you have a salad with chicken, chicken and salad, salad and chicken. You're not getting a lot of protein in that. Okay? But when you're eating eggs, when you're eating meat like steak and bacon and protein, protein, protein, protein and fat, I love protein and fat combinations. But that's the way nature's done it. Look at a piece of cheese. What is it? Protein and fat. Look at eggs. What is that? Protein and fat. Look at meat. Look at fish. What is that? Protein and fat. Where's the carbs? <laugh> Not much. Not much. You don't need them. You know, good carbs are all right. Okay? But they're not essential. They're not essential. They burn too fast in terms of fuel. Okay, good question. Okay, Phyllis, cause I really wanted to answer that question.
Okay? And, uh, "What is the difference between fasting insulin tests and fasting glucose tests? A1C? What are good numbers?" Well, look, Theresa, all those testing are good. Okay. Fasting insulin, I really like it should be under 10. That's the way I look at it. But most doctors, they don't do that test. They're not really interested in your insulin, it's their training. Okay? So let me reinforce why I love insulin, because insulin's a food horn and we talk about it all the time. I am a metabolic syndrome specialist, okay? I have been for years and years and years and years, people didn't know what I was talking about. But in my head, I understood the seeds of disease. And one of the biggest seeds of disease, you heard me talking about an earlier one. Leaky gut. Leaky gut, leaky problems, big problems in the body, high circulating insulin. It's a food problem. I wanna measure that. I used to measure insulin in my office, but because doctors don't do it, generally, I like not looking at your glucose. I like looking at A1C. Why is that? Because A1C tells me everything I need to know as to whether you have insulin resistance or not. Okay? So let me give you some numbers. Now, what is Dr. Martin look at when you send me your blood work? What am I looking for? I'm looking for insulin resistance. Because if you have insulin resistance, you have high circulating insulin. What does that mean? Well, you are much more susceptible to heart disease, cancer, stroke, much more susceptible. Alzheimer's, diabetes and all starts with insulin. And insulin is a measurement of food response in the body.
So listen, A1C tells me and tells you where you are with insulin resistance. Now, anything under 5.4 is pretty good, okay? Is pretty good. Uh, you know what? There's research showing that your brain, they've actually measured this. Where you have any kind of shrinking in your brain is 5.2 and up 5.2 to 5.4 is all right, but there's minor shrinking still of the brain, so you actually want to get it under 5.2. But when I see 5.4 for years in A1C, I never got too uptight. I said, okay, you're pretty good. Anything above that, you have insulin resistance. Okay? Anything above 5.4, you have insulin resistance. But actually the new testing wants it even lower than that, okay. But that's the difference, that's the difference in those testing. If your doctor won't do a fasting insulin test, they just don't get it, cause all they're thinking of is diabetes. But you don't have diabetes. Why do I I gotta, I'm not checking your fasting insulin. It's their training. They wait till you get diabetes or pre-diabetic. They're, they're not trained in food. I'm sorry, but they just don't get a lot of it in medical school. They don't get nutrition. They leave nutrition to the dieticians and they don't get the connection between food and disease. They just don't get it. I called it the hijacking of, of the medical profession by the pharmaceutical industry. It's hijacking. And the labs have hijacked them too because, you know, unless you're diabetic, you know your blood sugar is way up here, doctors. But when you're a functional doctor, a metabolic doctor, you're interested. It's prevention. I tell people, even if you send me your blood work and I go, you're insulin resistant, you know what that means? You and carbs don't get along. You got a bad relationship, get rid of them. If you wanna save your... Hello, I'm into prevention. Okay?
Petra, "I was wondering if you could talk about blood clots and what to do about them in one of your sessions." Well, look, one thing, okay, for sure. I, I'm gonna talk about leg blood clots. Move, be in good shape. People get blood clots, they get on a plane, they don't move for 10 hours or whatever. They sit too long, they're much more susceptible. One, move. Just move. Be strong. You want your micro circulation. Now here's another thing. Again, when you're insulin resistant, you have high circulating insulin. You start problems in your blood vessels. Sugar destroys your blood vessels rapidly. That's why you have an organ dedicated to getting sugar outta your bloodstream. Sugar is so toxic, your body dedicates itself to getting sugar out. And still we eat sugar. Ah, it's good for you. No son, your body's smarter than you are. It says nah out. I'm gonna park you outta here. Problem is if you insist on doing it, you can start a real cascade of problems. We talked about this on yesterday afternoon's session on high triglycerides. And that can form blood clots, those fat balls in your blood, especially if you have low cholesterol. You don't wanna have low cholesterol. What do you wanna have low cholesterol for? Good question.
Braheem. Is this from you my friend? "I read side effects of D3 is increased urination. Is this so?" Uh, no, <laugh> it shouldn't be the opposite. Okay, let's talk about men first, okay? Because if you're increased urination, usually, okay, it's the prostate in men usually. Okay? A man that never has to get up in the middle of the night or whatever, good for him. Okay? <laugh>, because it's rare, okay? I always laugh, okay? I gotta tell you a story. I'm a senior, okay? So if I go to the theater, not often, but if I do, I go in the afternoon <laugh>. Okay? But it's funny, if you watch the seniors watch the men in the middle of a show, guess what? They gotta get up and go for a pee. And Jean Pronovost, a dear friend taught me this prostat in French, the prostate. That's why they're up, okay? So actually Braheem vitamin D is very anti-inflammatory. And that should be shrinking your prostate. So when they say frequent urination, eh, I don't buy it. It should be the opposite, okay? Because it vitamin D is very anti-inflammatory. It's one of the ways it works. Vitamin D is so good, it's very anti-inflammatory. Did you, you ought to see the studies that just came out. Now they're finally, finally admitting what vitamin D could have done during this whole virus thing. Just vitamin D. Unbelievable. You should see the study on vitamin D and what it does for viruses, but it's never, never, never going to take the place of anything else. Why is that? There's no money in that. There's no money in, anyways, thanks for the question. Braheem, we appreciate it.
Okay, Marilyn, "Recently in Jamaica, why did my ankle swell?" The heat will do that, Marilyn. Okay? And, uh, you're drinking lots of water. I would add some salt. You're probably still dehydrated. And when your body's dehydrated, your body holds onto water, your body's smart. And if you're eating sugar, guess what your body does, it holds onto water. Think about this for a sec. Okay? Why is a diabetic thirsty all the time? Okay? And one of the ways, okay, this is how we got trained in, in school. The person come into the office, one of the reasons that you're thirsty all the time, okay? Hungry all the time, urinating all the time, and thirsty all the time, is because sugar. Your body needs a lot of water when you eat sugar. It dehydrates you very much. See your body's trying to get rid of the sugar. And one of the ways it does is that you are constantly flowing in the bloodstream out, out, out. So you're peeing it out, that's why I've talked to you in the last little bit about one of the best tests that I used to do in my office and rarely ever gets done anymore is a urine test for sugar. Way before a patient is a diabetic, officially, they're peeing out sugar in their urine. Why is that? Because the body's smart. It's trying to get rid of the sugar, but it's very dehydrating. That's why you need a lot of water, and that's why people are pre-diabetic. They, they're, they're thirsty all the time. And you, you know, you see that in kids with type one diabetes. They don't know they're type one right away and they're drinking and they're peeing all the time and they're ravenous, they're hungry. And those are signs of, uh, diabetes. Okay? Thank you for the question.
Hey, Hannah, "Is gum loss reversible?" Well, I talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Yes, it is two things when I think of gums. Okay? One, protein, protein. Do you know how many people even on the reset have told me over the years? Doc, my dentist noticed that my gums are better. The second thing, Hannah, is bacteria that sits in your mouth and it's part of leaky gut. Leaky gut, leaky mouth where you have more bad guys than good guys that can eat away at the gum line. And you know, I'm not, I don't like mouth washes or anything like that. I like probiotics. Good bacteria. They're on your side. They go from your gut to your brain, in your mouth, in your sinuses, in your lungs. They travel, okay? And they're good for you. Thanks for the question.
Kelly. "My gray hair has strands that have disappeared." Well, holy moly, Kelly, not me. And she's asking, "Has bone broth can that not have anything to do with it?" Yeah, yeah, could. It's possible. Bone broth is so good for your hair. Okay, now, I don't have a lot hair. Okay? Men, as we get older, you know, I, I was looking at a guy last night, he had a lot of hair compared to me. Okay? But you know, men lose their hair. You know, 90% of men, they don't have a good head of hair after they hit 50 or 60 or 70. Okay? Women, hair is your glory. It's important, isn't it? Isn't your hair important ladies for a man who can shave herself bald and who cares, right? But a woman, okay, that's your glory Bible says that, okay. And yeah, I've seen it and I've had hairdressers and they know, tell my patients, holy moly, what are you doing? Your hair is so much thicker, it's so much better. It's brighter, it's, it's stronger, it's thicker, it's blah, blah, blah. What did you do? Bone broth. Okay, and we got a hair formula too.
Okay, Diane, "What can we do to heal polyps in the stomach?" Well, anytime you hear the word polyp, it's a growth. So two things. Insulin is a growth hormone. Two hormones that want you dead. Insulin, estrogen. Estrogen doesn't want you dead, but it could kill you, okay? Insulin is a growth hormone. It makes things grow, grow, grow. Okay? Estrogen, womanly hormone makes things grow, grow, grow. DIM out the estrogen, lower the insulin and you're in good shape. The other one that can aggravate it pours gasoline on the fire of growth is cortisol. Okay? That's your stress hormone. So lower that too. Okay? Thank you very much, Diane. And don't feed it. Polyps, don't give it sugar, no sugar.
Judy, "dental probiotic." I just talked about it. If you take a probiotic, you don't need to take a dental probiotic. Okay? Probiotics are like indigenous people. They have their own tribes and they go to their own place. And some of them like to colonize in your mouth. Some of them like to colonize in your gut. Some of them like to colonize in your sinuses. Some like to colonize in your lungs. And that's why I like a broad spectrum probiotic because then you're covering yourself from head to toes. Uh, the dental one, eh, I I, I seen the other day that they got a probiotic. I saw it online. A probiotic gum. What? Okay, thanks for the question, Judy.
Carol, "What causes low blood pressure?" Well a lot of things can cause low blood pressure, the number one thing that will cause your blood pressure to go down is your thyroid. Your thyroid can slow down. Could be reasons for that. Cortisol and other things. And like stress effects that estrogen dominance can affect that. A lot of things can slow that thyroid down. And that's usually what will give you low blood pressure. Okay? So get that thyroid going, get it stimulated, get it moving and get it back to norm. I'm very big on, on that. Thyroid is a, like a, a puppet. It's got a lot of strings attached to it and you gotta figure that out. Okay?
Oh, I can breathe now. Okay guys, I think I answered all the questions. I, I did, I did. Okay guys, you having fun? Okay, lots of fun coming up next week. I'm sure... You know me. I'll be looking for new studies and new things to talk about to keep, uh, keep you guys informed, okay? The news behind the health news, that's me. Okay? And guys, we love you and we'll talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!